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On my last trip to Hong Kong, a couple of my buddies took me to an organic vegetarian place in Hong Kong’s Central district called Life Cafe

The interior was “cozy,” almost small, but had a very nice atmosphere. I was happy that they were using a fan with the window open instead of air-conditioning. Their dishes were very fresh and well made and the menu is even indicates what’s vegetarian, what’s vegan, and which dishes are gluten free.

I got the BBQ tofu served with some veggies and mashed sweet-potatoes (very tasty). One of my friends enjoyed (and was surprised to get full off of) his veggie burger. The buddy who got the chick pea stew didn’t seem too happy and I can understand why; it didn’t really have the hearty, flavorful characteristics one would associate with a stew.

Though we didn’t try any desserts, they also have vegan and gluten free sweets for after the meal =D.

And at around 80-90 HKD for a dinner entree, the price is quite reasonable for a classy dinner in HK

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There’s a happy little place in Hong Kong. Tucked away in Causeway Bay, just behind the Golden Triangle at 33 Jardine’s Bazaar. Already famous in HK but relatively overlooked by backpackers, this wonderful shop is open 24-hours and is a great place for a cheap fuel-up before a day’s sight-seeing or after a night at the pubs.

The best thing on their menu is the rice roll (or 饭团). Either meat filled or vegetarian, savory or sweet, wrapped in hot sticky rice. Delicious and less than 10 HKD each. Their soymilk is also fantastic and a good way to wash down the rice roll’s sticky goodness .


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It seems that the importance of food in Chinese culture is fairly well known. We may have “California Fusion” back home, but I can’t think of many western countries where food varies so radically by state or region that people say, “oh, I feel like Seattle-style tonight.” I also can’t think of a British or French stone collector who turns a $1.3 million collection into a tribute to traditional dishes. Taiwanese stone collector Hsu Chun-I did just that, taking 21 years to create more than 250 Chinese dishes.

Copyright: China Daily Information Co

Even knowing it’s made of rock…it does look pretty tasty

Got some neat news when I woke up this morning. The “Cheap and Free” City Guide I wrote for Wuhan got added to the BootsnAll City Guide index for Asia.

Excerpt:

Like most of China, the cost of living is lower than what you’d normally find in Europe or the USA. But Wuhan, being a bit tucked a way in Central China is still a step down on the cost scale from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other places tourists flock to. The hostel I know, which I believe is the only one in the city, has beds starting at 35 RMB (about 5USD). Breakfast of goooood local noodles and soy milk would be about 3RMB. Most dishes in the average restaurant are 8-12 RMB (I am vegan so I might not know if meat is markedly more expensive, it hasn’t caught my attention). Nicer restaurants, the dishes might be 20-30 RMB. Wuhanese people love good food and it’s very easy to find good food from all over China by walking down the street. Even at the wee hours it’s easy to find some noodle or BBQ places that are still open.

[Full Article]

Okay…after more than a year of not posting, I’m gonna try to get back in the habit of writing again.

There are a couple reasons for this. First, it just kinda seemed sad that I hadn’t even opened my blog for so long that I didn’t notice when it stopped working. Second, I thought some of my travel experiences might be useful to some. Let’s face it, most people from the USA don’t travel internationally. Hell, somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of us don’t even have passports. Third, I’m planning on going to law school soon so sharpening up my writing skills now won’t hurt me later.

Now I know one of the things that makes a successful blog successful is focus on a topic. Anyone who knows me will probably say that “focus” isn’t high on my list of achievements. I studied Asian History for my BA, I’m doing graphic design work now, and I’m loitering around Asia while I wait to hear back from law school. A quick glance at how few posts I’ve put in each category should be enough to convince a reader that I’m more about categorizing than focusing. So this blog will, as it has before, lack some focus. I will, however, try to keep some elements consistent. Since I’m “traveling” now, I’ll try to put up regular posts about what I’m doing and where. While I’m in Wuhan, which is a fair amount of the time, I’ll try to at least write about local events, venues, and eateries in the city. Wuhan may not take a big chunk out of a guide book, but the city certainly isn’t lacking in interesting foods. More on that later.

For now, it’s past 2am, the blog’s working again, and I’m going to sleep.

Oh I was sure purprised when I logged onto Facebook and had my privacy software (ZoneAlarm) tell me that my name was being sent to circuitcity.com. What’s the connection between Facebook and Circuit City? No Circuit City ads were even being loaded (not that loading a CC ad means that my name should be sent). It’s as if Facebook just sent a little "oh by the way, Marc just logged on" to whomever they please.

Worse yet, to whomever would pony out the dough.

Facebook End-of-Year Privacy Sale!

Everything Must Go!

I’m sure many have now heard about the heat Facebook is taking for their "information sharing" across websites. Apperently, purchases from certain merchants get fed into your Facebook feed unless you opt-out. That’s right, users are automatically opted in for this privacy invasion. Nice. Very friendly. Funny how this comes on the heels of that ridiculous Microsoft buy-in, isn’t it?

I heard on NPR that Facebook, responding to criticism of privacy invasion, said that users can set their privacy options to not display information aggrigated from other websites in case they didn’t want everyone to know what book or blender they just purchased. Deciding to tackle this before everyone I know discovers how many copies of The Rights of Man I’ll be purchasing, I open up Facebook and go to their privacy section. Here is the full content of that page (minus headers and ads):

Show your friends what you like and what you’re up to outside of Facebook. When you take actions on the sites listed below, you can choose to have those actions sent to your profile.Please note that these settings only affect notifications on Facebook. You will still be notified on affiliate websites when they send stories to Facebook. You will be able to decline individual stories at that time.No sites have tried sending stories to your profile

That’s it. Here are the two things that jump out at me. 1) There are no sites listed below so I don’t even know what sites to be wary of (read, unmarked minefield). 2) There’s no settings to control. There’s no way I can tell Facebook that I don’t want this information gathered, traded, used for marketing, or displayed on my own or EVERYONE’s mini-feed.

Boiler-plated this seems a passive way of saying that they aren’t sharing WHERE this information will be collected from, WHAT they’re wispering about in dark corners, WHEN they will be publishing the information they gather, or WHO I can tell I want my privacy respected. My question is WHY does Facebook think it’s necessary to do this in such a shady way? There are enough programs and apps for Facebook that people can add if they want this information shown.

They can opt-in.

Why can’t I opt out?

Here’s a nice little reflection on my adventures in Shanghai, written a few months ago around the time I was getting my Russian visa and rubbing elbows with the underworld on a nightly basis.

Shanghai, as it always has been, is an experience.

To summarize: my first time in Shanghai I was sick and coughing up blood before I passed out in the Hostel lounge. Second time I spent most of my late evenings on the street, occasionally striking up conversation with pimps and whores. This, my third time, I’m getting a deeper view of the SH underworld after undertaking a quest to recover a stolen camera.

The pimps are very helpful (so much that the Chinese saying ‘behind every smile is a knife’ stays close to the front of my mind) and it’s humorous that after three nights talking with groups of them for hours I recognize most of the working guys on the street (and they, me). One of them even introduced us to a man of influence (to put it subtly) who was willing to make some commission-based inquiries on our behalf.

Chances of recovering the camera seem bleak, but I have the strong impression that it depends more on how rogue the thief was than anything. If nothing else, I think I know some people who would know a good place to get "second hand" cameras.

To bring things back to the present day, the camera was never recovered, though I DID learn a new scam. Always nice to have some ways to make extra money while traveling ^_-. 

Hello my friends,

It’s been a while since I’ve bothered everyone with a mass mailing and the time seemed right for another.

I left my Hostel job early and started moving. I picked up a Russian visa in Shanghai and crossed the border to Russia’s eastern port city of Vladivostok. Three days on train took me to Lake Baikal and from there another four days to Moscow. Russia was fantastic; great food, friendly happy people, and a gorgeous landscape. I was in Russia for a total of two weeks before my visa ran out and I left for Latvia.

Riga was a complete surprise. Seemed to have a more casual, western European feel compared to Moscow. The old city was filled with beautiful architecture and an amazing array of food options. I only wish I was there fore more than two days but I had a cheap flight to catch down to Italy.

I spent a few weeks on Ischia sampling various pizzas before training it up to Frankfurt, Germany, for a four day wait before flying back home.

Tons of fun. And now I’m back home, dirt poor, and scouring job postings, hopefully for a job in a legal office.

Hope everyone’s well and has had a relaxing summer.

It’s New Year’s day on the Jewish calendar. We usually have some sweet food so the year gets a sweet start. Hope you all have sweet years ^__^

Cheers,
m

Well that Russian visa came through. That was a while go though. From Shanghai I ventured up to China’s far north and spent a few days in Harbin. Nice place, wonder museum exhibit setup in an old Jewish Synagogue left from the Jewish community that was warmly received there and contributed so much to the infrastructure of the city.

After Harbin, it was a mere 12 hour bus across the border to Vladivostok. It was a long ride and time difference, finally arriving in Vladivostok was two things: midnight and cold. A friend from the bus (a Russian studying Chinese in Harbin) and her friend helped hail a taxi to a hotel. Though it was dark and alien in the cold darkness of that first night, the morning brought an AMAZING view of the harbor that brought a new energy and excitement to the city.

Food in Russia’s been fantastic and there’s no shortage of good dark beers.

At some point I hope to have time and recollection to elaborate on the cities visited. To keep things brief; after Vladivostok I went to Irkust and Lake Bikal where I got to take a swim in the deepest lake in the world. And then to Moscow. Since entering Russia it’s been a week on trains, most nights spent drinking with locals and making friends despite my lack of Russian.

Moscow’s an amazing city. Great architecture and fashionable people. Such a difference from the fashion I was used to seeing on the streets in China. The wide spread use of the mullet hair-style interesting for me though. And expensive as hell except for the metro.

I’m planning on making a cheap sojourn through Europe overland by bus starting in Latvia. From there I’m hoping to reaching London for a cheap flight out of Europe.